Bills would clip NSA's wings on phone data

Senators critical of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs are rushing to introduce legislation to limit the feds’ snooping ability.

Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), are pitching a bill that would require a demonstrated link to terrorists or international spies for the intelligence community to collect phone call data.

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The legislation would modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 by requiring “reasonable grounds” to be shown that data collection is relevant to an “authorized investigation” on foreign terrorists or espionage programs, according to a draft obtained by POLITICO.

And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped a bill late Thursday much in harmony with the Udall-Wyden legislation, although it goes further by squashing the assumption that people “known to” suspected spies or terrorists are relevant to data-mining investigations.

Sanders also seeks to open up reports of these investigations to all members of Congress, rather than just members of intelligence and judiciary committees. Wyden and Udall sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee; Sanders does not.

The bills join a more broadly supported effort led by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) that would declassify some court rulings made by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that authorize data-mining programs. Nine Democrats and three Republicans have signed onto that bill, including Wyden, Udall and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who is mulling legal action against the government in reaction to revelations over the surveillance programs.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week that he’d be “happy to look at” proposals dealing with surveillance, but said they’d likely have to go through the regular committee process first, rather than be rushed to the floor in reaction to the NSA revelations.

House lawmakers, too, want to ensure that the government shows how any records it seeks are relevant to an investigation. A bill from Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) — that has picked up at least Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) as co-sponsors — would require “specific and articulable facts” to be presented before data is obtained. It also seeks to make FISA court decisions more available to Congress and the public.

Wyden said in concert with court disclosure bill, his and Udall’s proposal would go a long way toward repairing the public’s trust on government reach into privacy, which he suggested has gone too far.

“The disclosures of the last week have made clear to the American people that the law is being interpreted in a way that damages their civil liberties and that the system has been set up to keep Americans unaware of the intrusion,” Wyden said.

Udall said that while he believes FISA — the underlying law that allows the collection of business and phone records by the NSA — can offer valuable information, the collection of millions of citizens’ phone records is an example of “overreach” he has long been warning about.

“Americans with no link to terrorism or espionage should not have to worry that their private information is being swept up,” Udall said.

Udall and Wyden have been among the loudest critics of the Obama administration’s interpretation of FISA but have done so in the past week through carefully worded joint news releases. Leaving a classified briefing with NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Thursday, Wyden declined to say whether the closed door meeting had made him feel any better about the programs.

“I never talk about what goes on in those meetings,” Wyden told POLITICO on Thursday.